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With an observable self-awareness of how ridiculous some might feel about Apple’s obsession to detail, Tim Cook introduced two videos during the company’s Spring Forward event – each respectfully chronicling the uniqueness of the aluminum and steel used for Apple Watch cases.

This is a repeated strategy of Apple; shining a spotlight on the unseen minutia of their products, the features or attributes that nobody even thinks about.

Not only is this brilliant, but there are lessons to be learned and applied to our own social media and content marketing efforts.

Here’s why this strategy is so smart, and how you can apply it to your business:

DIFFERENTIATION

Let’s face it, all smart watches – the Apple Watch included – essentially have the same feature set. Like with all of their products, Apple differentiates by obsessing over the details of design, manufacture, user experience, and brand. These videos continue in that tradition; while competitors are focused ubiquitous features such as tech specs, the world’s most valuable company is obsessing over metallurgy.

APPLY THIS: Think about how your business differentiates from the competition. Whether it is obvious or not, many consumers need you to help them to understand the things you do that are beyond your competition. That understanding may well be just the thing that influences them to consider your brand, recommend it to a friend or family member, or make a purchase. Create content to reinforce these points of differentiation, and engage people in discussion about these aspects of what you do.

REINFORCEMENT OF VALUE PROPOSITION

Apple goes to great lengths to establish and reinforce their value proposition. This lures people to the brand, is used as justification for the added expense of buying Apple products, validates purchase and ownership for post-market consumers, and ultimately motivates advocacy. For the Apple Watch, this systematic reinforcement of their value proposition is well underway, and was built upon further with these videos.

APPLY THIS: Create content and engage in dialogue that is related to how your business adds value. This can be value inherent in your product or service, or it can be how you extend the value you offer consumers through the content you publish and conversations you engage in.

BRAND STORYTELLING

All of this obsession over detail, design, passion and craft is integral to Apple’s brand story. This is so engrained in Apple’s DNA, and they care so greatly for it, that it is infectious. It might be verging on ridiculous, but these are values that people can rally behind and want to associate with. These videos aren’t about metallurgy, they’re about Apple’s obsession with the products it makes, and everything about their production screams Apple, further reinforcing the brand story.

APPLY THIS: Be clear and confident in your brand, what it means and stands for, and pursue only the things you are passionate about. Convey that story in a compelling fashion to raise awareness or remind people of the many reasons why they should love your business or brand, and always push for things to be better. The passion-filled stories you tell will attract people to your brand, build advocacy, and you’ll have a better business as a result.

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What announcement from the Spring Forward event are you most excited about?

Where do you think Apple succeeded or failed with this event?

Was there anything about the content they presented that struck you as being a particular hit or miss?

It would be great to chat with you about your thoughts in the comments, or on Twitter @RGBSocial